Normally I cook with olive oil or canola oil, depending on the cuisine/recipe. My cooking is primarily California-style, with some Italian occasionally. But I recently read that canola isn’t a good one to use because it is so highly processed. Is there another reasonably priced oil that you like? What about avocado oil? I’ve seen that in the stores. I’m using these for sauteeing, and I don’t do any super high temp or deep frying. There is an overwhelming amount of info online, but I trust my fellow HOers to steer me in the right direction.
Thanks!
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Avocado oil ain’t cheap, and I have no issues with canola (which I use for frying). For almost everything else I use California Olive Ranch EVOO (which I love).
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I like sunflower oil. The only other oils I usually have on hand are EVOO and coconut oil. I just use the coconut oil for popcorn. Occasionally, I’ll buy corn oil.
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I usually use peanut oil for frying and baking.
I do like avocado oil for roasting vegetables yet it is a little pricey.
Also use coconut oil when cooking food that would benefit from that flavour profile.
Mostly use olive oil when not heating on a high heat.
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if you want neutral, then Canola is the way to go.
And, pshaw, it’s not any more processed than say any other vegetable oil (i.e. corn). The major processing process that canola oil goes through is deodorization (to make it neutral tasting) which is a process all vegetable oils under go.
Just like with anything in life, used in moderation canola oil - as a neutral option - is completely fine.
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I like sunflower or peanut oil and grew up with corn oil. I don’t like canola oil. I find it fishy. I always have.
These days I prefer to use animal fats for cooking, like beef dripping and lard because I want to minimize use of seed oils. I’m not an absolutist, though, and will use them occasionally. For baking I dislike using oil anyway, so I either use butter, olive oil (I love olive oil cake), or lard when in need of flavorless oil, as the flavor of the lard is never detrimental to those baked goods. Occasionally I’ll use coconut oil for baking, but that’s pretty rare.
Avocado oil is said to be better but it’s very pricey and there are concerns about it not being pure anyway.
Refined coconut oil is great for deep frying, but also pricey compared to sunflower oil.
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I don’t like the taste of canola oil. I wonder if some people are more sensitive to the flavor of it.
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Another vote to avoid canola oil. Fishy, especially when first opening a product with it as an ingredient. It does dissipate after awhile.
I use peanut, olive and coconut oil mostly.
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I bounce between grape seed and avocado oil.
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Another one who does not like canola oil. If for some reason I do not want to use olive oil I use sunflower, grapeseed or corn.
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I don’t use canola oil because I’m one of the people who find that it tastes fishy.
I use safflower, sunflower or grape seed oil when I need a neutral flavored oil.
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Grapeseed oil reigns at my house, with evoo as the alternative when I want the flavor.
I do keep vegetable oil for stir fries and very rare fry session, but grapeseed has taken the primary place.
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I mostly use olive oil, but also like grapeseed and avocado oils - macadamia oil is good too, but spendy $$$. I always have a vegetable oil on hand, most typically canola, or a mixed oil. I even buy pure corn oil when I can find it, but easier said than done, even if it’s Mazola, which I find to be funny. Coconut oil is fine for popcorn or certain things, but actually use little of it. My strong preference for frying is peanut oil, but not found everywhere up here, and expensive and in small bottles when you do - even at the Asian markets. Next time I’m in the south I’m going to pick up a gallon or two, and store it in the auxiliary fridge. Not that much frying takes place here, but who knows if the urge will hit to fry a turkey!!
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I’m surprised people are recommending avocado, coconut and things like peanut oil when the OP is seeking suggestions for neutral cooking oils.
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Refined coconut and peanut oil are neutral in flavor.
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So are avocado and macadamia nut oils.
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Canola oil isn’t fishy to me, but I find it always has an off (therefore off-putting) smell. Like a few others, I keep sunflower or grape seed oil on hand for when I need a neutral oil.
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Main cooking oil for me is refined sunflower. For me it has a rather neutral, great taste that doesn’t suffer on higher heat applications. They put sunflower oil to potato chips here and I like to replicate that at home also when frying leftover potatoes, or roasting the spuds.
When I add canola oil to a preheated pan, it starts instantly smelling fishy, I don’t like that at all. I still buy it sometimes though, mostly due to the omega 3s, but I struggle finding much use for it when sunflower just smells and tastes better for me. Yesterday we had popcorn where I added some canola oil after popping them with my air popper (forgot this machine in the appliances thread), the popcorn were fine, but I like butter better on them.
Otherwise I always have some EVOO also for pasta, pizza, lamb, salad etc. Occasionally walnut oil and avocado. Avocado is fine and rather neutral for me, but a bit costly indeed.
I buy toasted sesame oil when I have my stir fry phases, but found some organic non toasted sesame rather bad actually and we eventually got just rid of it. I wish peanut was more available here, never seen it. There are some other nut oils, but they are costly usually.
I would suggest giving sunflower a chance.
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Peanut oil and avocado are neutral oils. I know sometimes people get confused because something like this is not a neutral oil, but typical peanut oil is neutral.
https://www.starmarket.com/shop/product-details.960201760.html
Refined coconut oil is also considered a neutral oil. I will say that I can still smell and taste coconut, but for the most part it’s pretty faint and it seems the majority of people don’t notice it.
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The non-toasted sesame oil is typically refined and I’ve only ever seen it called for once or twice for deep frying and once for a chiffon recipe. So all you really need is the toasted.
The toasted is best added towards the end when you’re not really heating your dish anymore. And best kept in the fridge.
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